The Teddy Bear Toss Collected 20,000 Bears for Charity in Calgary

This incredible teddy bear toss happened in the CHL at the Calgary Hitmen’s arena. Approximately 20,000 teddy bears were tossed on the ice after the Hitmen scored a goal.

Before you scratch your head too hard, this is a tradition. The original tradition was spawned by Scott Mellanby years ago when he found a rat in the change room and killed it with a slap shot. Fans of the Florida Panthers started throwing toy rats on the ice after a goal in 1996. The tradition moved on to other NHL arenas before the league imposed a delay of game penalty on the home team whenever fans disrupted the game this way.

The tradition took a charitable twist in this case. Every fan attending the game was asked to bring a teddy bear. When the Hitmen scored, all the bears were thrown onto the ice and the bears were given to charity.